Event Details

THE FUTURE OF NOW: Always On, Always Connected

We are living in an age of unprecedented human connectivity.

Social Media has transformed the way Chicagoans live, do business and experience the world. Engage with people who will share the brightest and most innovative perspectives on social media during Social Media Week Chicago 2014.

At this year's community-sourced, city-wide event - The Future of Now: Making Sense of Our Always On, Always Connected World - you'll discover world-shaking ideas, cool people, and the best sites, apps and online stuff that make life better.

In 2014 Facebook passed the 1 billion mark for monthly active users on phones and tablets. That is a sign of how mobile is approaching near-parity with desktop for Facebook. Instagram and Facebook Messenger each have over 200 million monthly users. Marketers and advertisers will learn how to reach social media customers on mobile devices.

There have been more than 2 billion check-ins with Foursquare. Users are encouraged to be hyper-local and hyper-specific with their check-ins-one can check into a certain floor/area of a building, or indicate a specific activity while at a venue. Users can choose to have their check-ins posted on their accounts on Twitter, Facebook, or both. Swarm, the new app from Foursquare, lets you to easily see who's out nearby and who wants to hang out later.

Speakers include:

Todor Krecu, Founder, Chicago Social Media Marketing Group

Linda Felter, Sales Executive at Foursquare - Linda is a Sales Executive at Foursquare, working with brands throughout the Central U.S., providing location based marketing solutions. Her areas of expertise include the ability to create, sell and manage innovative multi-platform campaigns, mobile marketing, and custom content programs. She also has a background in online video and sports media with previous positions at CBS Interactive. Linda holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies from The University of Michigan and resides in Chicago with her husband.

Julie Fekete, Brand Partner at Foursquare – Julie responsible for building and growing client relationships across the Midwest. Julie has 7+ years of experience working in digital and social media. Prior to joining Foursquare, Julie worked at Tumblr as a Brand Strategist partnering with clients on creative strategy and content marketing solutions. Before Tumblr, she worked at Yelp as a Senior Account Executive on their national sales team. She’s worked with several key brands across the Midwest including Target, Kraft, Purina, Gatorade, McDonald’s, Sprint, Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors.

Julie DiCaro, Social Media Manager for WGN Radio, WGN.fm, and 87.7 The Game. You can hear her talking sports on the radio weekdays on Griff, Quigs & Finfer from 1-3 pm on 87.7 fm or thegamechicago.com.

Communication technology unites us, relays news equally with opinion, transports us to worldwide events, and shrinks distances between our relationships. We're tuning into events that we've never before been able to access and witnessing other people's experiences unfold in real-time.

Our communications paradigm has shifted, and with it, our interactions within our immediate environments have evolved.

Social media and mobile technologies have paved the way for new boundaries of relationships and connection while presenting challenges unique to our time: the ability to remain present, contemplative, and aware of our inter- and intra-personal relationships. These technologies help us multitask, search news, and browse several activity feeds at once. Although we're unable to extend time, we're doing our best to pack more into every second, reacting and responding to natural disasters, self-organizing at an incredible speed. Furthermore, businesses and brands can more quickly react to customer complaints, address supply chain problems, and engage new consumers.

In 2014, Social Media Week will peer deeper at this shift on a global level across all of our cities around the globe. This will provide a framework for the thousands of individuals and organizations around the world to address questions related to the impact and reach of social media and technology and draw inspiration from thought leaders who will their own ideas and inspire discussions.

Leading the framework for this discussion will be our global theme for 2014: The Future of Now: Always On, Always Connected.

Social Media Week, partnering with Nokia, will explore what this all means on a global scale. In our sixth year of operation, reaching attendees in 26 cities, together with an online audience of 1M who connect via streaming video, social, and mobile experiences, The Future of Now will be our global focus for the next 12 months.

Within The Future of Now there are 6 underlying principles that lead to a better understanding of this always on, always connected world:

TWO SIDES OF TECHNOLOGY

w can we balance and preserve humanness - meaning the ability to listen, empathize, engage, focus and be present in the moment - despite the constant disruption that technology enables? SMW14 will help us all learn how to both appreciate and temper the pull of technology in our lives.